Girl, 5, Burned in Mom's Tanning Booth: Cops

Parent of the Year Award goes to the New Jersey mom who's in court facing a charge of taking her 5-year-old daughter into a stand-up tanning booth, where authorities say the girl suffered burns. Patricia Krentcil is charged with child endangerment. She calls the accusation "a lie," and tells the AP her daughter got sunburned by being outside on a recent warm day.

She says her daughter, however, had mentioned to school officials when she complained of itching that she had been to a tanning salon with her mother. Police in Nutley told The Record newspaper they were called to the child's school April 24 because she was in pain from a "pretty severe sunburn." Krentcil's own skin is deeply bronze-colored from regular salon visits. New Jersey law prohibits anyone under 14 from using tanning salons. (More strange stuff stories.)